A co-founder of Beximco Group, a Bangladesh-headquartered multinational conglomerate that operates one of South Asia’s largest vertically integrated textile businesses, was arrested in Dhaka earlier this week after allegedly trying to flee the country by river in disguise.
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Salman Fazlur Rahman, the company’s vice chairman and a former industry adviser to ousted prime minister Sheikh Hasina, was apprehended alongside former law minister Anisul Huq at Dhaka River Port in Sadarghat on Tuesday evening following a police tip-off about their purported escape, local media reported. They were both placed on a 10-day remand for interrogation over the death of 24-year-old hawker Md. Shahjahan during the student demonstrations over job quotas in July. Eggs were thrown at the police van that escorted them to court that night, according to the Financial Express. It added that the hearing itself lasted all of three minutes, with neither man allowed to defend himself.
Beximco did not respond to requests for comment. Nor did brands and retailers such as Amazon, Bestseller, Target, Tommy Hilfiger parent PVH Corp., Marks & Spencer and Zara owner Inditex, which are listed on its website as “key clients” of its apparel and textiles division. C&A, one of its buyers, said that it’s closely monitoring and assessing the situation internally. Walmart, whose logo is also displayed, said it hasn’t conducted business with the company in years.
On Friday, the Bangladesh Bank revealed that four Beximco subsidiaries have yet to repay the $25.4 million in foreign currency loans that they borrowed from its Export Development Fund three years ago. The central bank said that Springful Apparels still owed $12.3 million, Pink Maker Garments $8.5 million, Autumn Loop Apparels $4.4 million and Platinum Garments $280,000. Bangladesh Bank has suspended EDF financing from Janata Bank due to the loans’ “non-recovery,” it added.
Beximco’s sprawling textile and apparel division, much of it located in Beximco Industrial Park in the central Bangladeshi city of Gazipur, can pump out 100,000 yards of finished fabric every day and more than 9 million knit and woven garments—from dress shirts to fleece pullovers to denim jeans—per month, according to its website. It employs some 40,000 people and has an annual turnover of $500 million.
Last August, Beximco inaugurated a 600-acre, 520,000-panel solar power plant —Bangladesh’s largest to date—in Gaibandha through its Teesta Solar subsidiary.
While it remains to be seen whether the controversies will materially affect Beximco’s bottom line, it’s not the only business that could see its international buyers beat a hasty retreat in light of Bangladesh’s woes. The ongoing unrest has precipitated a litany of production, logistical, banking and communications disruptions, which have made brands and retailers jittery.
Despite the establishment of a caretaker government led by Nobel Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus , the nation’s long-term stability remains uncertain, said Jena Santoro, senior manager of intelligence solutions at Everstream.ai, a supply chain risk analytics firm.
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“It is unclear if Bangladesh’s future government will be able to address the economic and social concerns that made Sheikh Hasina’s government increasingly unpopular in the first place,” Santoro said.
So far only H&M Group and Puma have publicly stated that they do not plan to reallocate their sourcing from Bangladesh, though they both continue to assess the situation daily.
Meanwhile, Bangladesh’s Purchasing Managers’ Index fell by 27 points in July—its first contraction since the benchmark manifested in January—a sign of “significant” declines in new orders, exports and supplier deliveries, according to the Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Dhaka and Policy Exchange Bangladesh. Garment exports from the country to the United States, its top destination, also dropped to $3.4 billion in the first half of 2024, or 11 percent lower than the same period the year before, the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Office of Textiles and Apparel said.
In a joint letter to the 200 signatories of the International Accord for Health and Safety in the Textile and Garment Industry, which succeeded the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh in 2021 , UNI Global Union and IndustriALL Global Union called for continued commitment to Bangladesh amid the volatility.
“The garment sector is the backbone of the Bangladeshi economy. Your commitment to improving health and safety for garment workers through the International Accord has allowed millions of garment workers to be lifted out of poverty, without risking their lives to do so,” UNI deputy general secretary Alke Boessige and IndustriALL general secretary Atle Høie wrote on Thursday.
Boessige and Høie said that the people’s toppling of a “discredited” government provides “hope for a better future” despite the immediate-term social and economic upheaval that the new leadership is working to address.
“As the country strives to restore order and build a new democracy, economic stability is essential,” they added. “The garment industry has a major role to play in stabilizing the country and ensuring a regular income for workers.”
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